to think that those of you of have abundant cushions on your bed are just as bad as the loons who have teddy bears on theirs?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

A friend (rather DP's workmate's girflfriend) just moved into a new house. She is a lovely girl, went round their house with some lilys to nose have a look.

She has about 6 great big cushions on her bed all nicely arranged. And one of those strips of material like a scarf at the bottom.

I made all the right noises but then said 'what do you do when you go to bed, do you just throw 'em on the floor?'

She looked at me as if I was old man Steptoe and said 'no we put them in the ottoman'. And by the window is a blanket box in which she puts the cushions at night, and then puts them back on the bed in the morning.

That's MAD isn't it?

Mind you, she is only 24. Surely a bit of real life will knock that madness out of her.

[FellatioNelson]

Yes, I think that about carpets too! Sometimes they just tell us all this crap to make us keep changing, and spending yet more money. I'm suitably old now that I don't necessarily care what's in or out anymore - I just have what I like, and I've learnt what is worth spending big money on and what is not. The good thing about an older house and loads of junk antiques and vintage is that you don't have a burning need to change the entire place every five years which gets exhausting, not to mention expensive.

There is something rather lovely about an ecelectic assortment of stuff that has evolved over the years, and where each piece has a story attached, rather than everyhwhere looking like an instant pop-up room set, no matter how trendy it is.

[HouseOfBamboo]

Fellatio - yes you were there early with the natural stone bathroom, and is that a cherry wood kitchen? Love the sideboard!

Respect re teh scrapbooks - that's the sort of thing I keep meaning to do (then DH spirits them away to the recycling bin when I'm not looking).

Nelliesmum at the stuffed spaniel. No, I missed that one. Hope it didn't moult, that would be the worst of all worlds. (I feel bound to point out that the stuffed kangaroo I mentioned earlier is made entirely of man-made fibres. And hangs out on my child's bed, not mine.)

GetOrf - your house sounds v nice too. Very of the parquet flooring. at parquet and white walls.

There was an article in Homes and Antiques about how carpet is back. It can feck right back off again as far as I'm concerned.

[FellatioNelson]

I did admit to the HOME sign earlier in the thread ladies (keep up).

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Fellatio - your home looks absolutely lovely.

I take it all back re tapestry cushions.

Lovelyu kitchen - I am very envious.

I am pursing my lips a bit at the HOME sign.

LOL also at your profile - ojne of you favoruite things is the Farrow and Ball colour card.

[AbsofCroissant]

I was going to say, Fellatio, that your house is fabulous, until I got to the picture of the hallway with the cupboard at the end, with the letters saying "HOME" on top.

[FellatioNelson]

There you go - all the ones below the picture of the field are my old house. Doesn;t look quite so cutting edge now, but it was 7 or 8 years ago they were taken! And I'm sorry to report that I still seem to have cushions on my bead.

Look soon if you are going to, because I'll take them all off later today. Starting to feel like a show-off.

[FellatioNelson]

Guilty. Only the one spatula though and I'm not sure it's that nice - just your average spatula.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I BET you have got a kitchenaid. And really nice spatulas and tartlet cases

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I think I must be confusing you with LeQ and her lavender bags.

I am so minimal because I was raised in a very cluttered house, as soon as I left home I wanted clean sides and no crap anywhere. I am not Monica geller tidy, you should see the inside of my cupboards, everything is just slung in.

I actually really like other people's houses where there is an abunsance of stuff - some people have the talent to have a load of eclectic things around, and for it to look stylish. I have no sense of style at all really so if I tried the same thing it would look like Hilda Ogden/Old Man Stepote.

[FellatioNelson]

No, I wouldn't at all actually. I am a minimalist at heart, and I'm not big on ornaments or clutter at all, or curtains, but I have to have some out of necessity - my house is like an arctic igloo otherwise.

My kitchen is cluttered but that's because I'm an obsessive buyer of kitchen equipment. Everyehere else is rather pared down, albeit in a country house stylee. I'll see if I can put some pics of my previous (very modern) house on my profile so you beleive me!

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I think you and LeQ would cry if you saw my gaff, and start donating tapestry cushion kits or whatever.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I would actually like plain lightbulbs around the house. I really like the design of lightbulbs and have no idea why we cover them in shades. We have got dichroic lights in the kitchen but I think they look mad in the rest of the house. I would like bare bulbs everywhere but DP loathes my lunatic asylum interrogation room look (his words) and so we have plain glass lampshades.

DD's room is BRIGHT BLOODY PINK and she has shaggy cushions and shit everywhere. She has let me down.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

It is actually Fellatio. Very minimal.

I don't do cushions or fabric. There is not a curtain or carpet in the house.

Wooden floors (parquet, not laminate, I am not council ), white walls, black plain fabric sofa. Plain shelves with books the only ornamentation. 2 lamps. No blind on the windows (they are nice windows, don't want to cover them in curtains or blinds). A great big african necklace on the wall is the only ornamentation.

Kitchen, white cupbaords, really nice industrial sink. 3 painting. NO clutter or anything at all on the sides, apart from teh kettle (I used to put that in teh cupboard after use but DP nearly left me).

Bedroom - white sheets. Steel bedside table. White walls. Nothing else in room apart from shelf of books and mirror. I would actually like black lino on the floor but again DP thinks I am nuts so therefore have got floorboards.

No clutter anywhere. Loads of cupboards in which things are hurled stored.

Think you could say I have a very plain aesthetic

[FellatioNelson]

I was wondering when you'd come back. I thought we'd driven you away permanently - screaming into the hills.

What's your house like then Getorf? Wall to wall concrete paving slabs, with the odd lino square for comfort, a padded cell, no pictures, no curtains? Bare lightbulbs with a single wooden chair beneath them?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

LOOK at you lot hijacking my thread with your House Beautiful fantasies.

I thought of LeQueen the other day when I was in Waitrose and saw a punnet/carton/whatever of wooden eggs. Why?

[FellatioNelson]

And who said ottomans were useless?

[QueeferSutherland]

My name is Queffer, and I have a "keep calm..." poster.

In my defence, I got it 3 years ago, before they reached saturation point. And I have a "shut up and deal with it" picture to replace it.

I use my bed cushions for bfing.

I have an antique silk tapestry bed runner, but I'm too scared to put it on the bed. It would be covered in sick or semen within hours.

I used to have a sex-ottoman too. DH misses it.

[FellatioNelson]

My mil has exactly the same in the guest room. Everywhere you look you see the same pattern dancing before your eyes.

[nelliesmum]

See my MiL embraces the full set of M&S matching curtains, curtain tie-backs, wall paper, lampshade, duvet covers, valance etc. all in a pattern of pink rambling roses.

To be fair to M&S I think she bought this stuff in the 80s.

[whomovedmychocolate]

MiL has a large bowl of wooden fruit in her kitchen, painted to look real, very real. In fact so real she would be better to probably have real fruit.

But perhaps she doesn't like the fibre as it gets in the way of the big stick up her arse?

[FellatioNelson]

I have special enormous stiff-backed scrapbooks with clear plastic wallets, and A3 pieces of white card. These are for my poncestastic Homes and Garden clippings (of the inspirational photograph variety obviously, not grass and hedge clippings.)

When my magazines get to about three months old and/or the pile is a fire hazard, (whichever is soonest) I go through them all cutting out lovely bits and spending entire Sundays sticking them all in my speshal books. I've nearly finished volume III now. They are interiors porn of the highest order, let me tell you.

This practice bemuses/irritates my DH no end.

[DirtyMartini]

[nelliesmum]

Does anyone remember the nightdress case made from the real stuffed spaniel that someone found on Ebay. It was french and in the picture was sitting perkily on someone's bed with its tongue hanging out. It was a long, long time ago but certainly a highlight of my Mumsnet existence.

SIGH...

[HouseOfBamboo]

Fellatio - ooh yes that would be good.

Oh dear, I forgot to mention the somewhat poncetastic pile of Homes and Antiques mags that are also a feature of my home decor

[wineonafridaynight]

We have decorative cushions...but they tend to get chucked on the floor at night!